Merry Giftmas, Crayon
by Hiharry66
Summary: A bunch of skeleton brothers have to face the worst before saving Giftmas.
1. Judgement Hall

Merry Giftmas!

\- UnderFell San (Red)

\- UnderFell Papyrus (Edge)

\- SwapFell Sans (Black)

\- SwapFell Papyrus (Mutt)

\- FellSwap Sans (Bow)

\- FellSwap Papyrus (Purple)

\- UnderSwap Sans (Blue)

\- UnderSwap Papyrus (Stretch)

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Stretch stood in the Judgement Hall.

Birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and his brother's light blue bandana was wrapped around his neck. Golden light filtered through the window. The Delta Rune marked in stones on the floor glistened and reflected the light onto him.

Things weren't supposed to go this way. Everything was fine. He had shook the human's hand. He had asked the human to entertain his bro. But something went wrong. It was too quiet. He was supposed to meet with Doggo at Muffet's, but his chain-smoking friend had never arrived. He thought maybe he had gotten lost in the forest again, since it happened whenever a breeze wasn't around to sway the trees and lead him back to town. But, no. No. None of the guard members had shown up to Muffet's.

His next guess was that they were at training. Some unscheduled session Alphys had called to test the Guard. It had happened before. Nothing unusual. But it was too quiet.

After sitting at his post in Hotland, waiting far too long for that human to show up, he decided to make his way back to Snowdin to check on his bro. He knew something was wrong. He knew something had gone horribly, terribly wrong. He couldn't hear his bro. He couldn't hear anyone. He couldn't hear _anything_. He took a shortcut to pass by the area he assumed the kid might be in at this point, and arrived at his post in Waterfall.

But no one was there.

Panicking, he had ran back to Snowdin, but he was too late.

But he was early to this fight.

He understood self-defense: he may not have had to use it in the past, but there was no harm in knowing it anyway. He wouldn't have held it against the kid for killing a monster here or there. For Toriel's sake, most of the underground was trying to kill the kid, so of course he would have understood self-defense. But killing his brother? Blue wouldn't have killed anyone. He didn't have it in him.

So here he was, in the judgement hall, awaiting a fight with the kid. Oh, that kid was gonna have a bad time, he'd make sure of it. The human had no idea what they were up against.

Stretch saw a shadow move out of the corner of his eyesocket, but in a split second, it was gone.

But he knew who, or what, it was.

But he knew who- or rather, what- it was. Temmie had caught his eye as she tried to disappear. If he somehow survived this, he'd hunt Temmie down and have a few words for her. But right now, her presence didn't mean anything to him, not when he had to focus on the human.

He'd stop the kid or die trying. Both options sounded nice to him. So, in reality, he couldn't lose. What a lovely feeling.

He took one last drag of the dog treat and dropped it to the floor, but paused before stepping on it. Maybe it would burn the place to the ground?

The smoke died from the treat and Stretch frowned.

No luck. Oh well.

Stretch stared ahead at the archway. He heard footsteps. The human was coming. No more avoiding them. He held tight to the bandana and checked himself. He was hoping he'd have more HP, but of course, he didn't.

Eh. Whatever.

They were here.

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Red rocked back on his heels and breathed deeply.

This sucked. This really, really sucked. His brother was dead. And, well, ya, that was bad. That was really bad. He cared for his brother, ya know?

Even if he was treated like trash all the time, he had raised Edge, and loved him; even if the jerk belittled him every chance he got.

In this world, it was kill or be killed, and his brother had been killed.

He didn't blame the human. Not a bit. If he were in the human's situation, he would have done the same thing.

But now Red had no one.

He was alone in a kill-or-be-killed world with a human hunting down every monster in the underground. Of course, it wasn't as if the human wasn't being hunted right back. Everyone wanted that SOUL of theirs. And hey, as long as they were after the kid, they weren't after him. Bonus. But now, nearly everyone was dead. The kid had glided through the underground, not stopping to smell the echo flowers once as they tore down everyone in their path. Sans had just avoided them. Avoided them as they killed his brother, avoided them as they killed Undyne, avoided them as they killed Mettaton, and now…

He opened his jacket and looked sadly at his brother's scarf, which was crammed into his inside pocket. Maybe he cared more than he thought. Maybe he was in denial. Maybe he was numb. Maybe…

Eh, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered. That flower had tried and failed to talk sense into them. If the flower couldn't do it, Red didn't have a snowball's chance in Hotland. He should just run…

…but in the end, he stayed.

Groaning, he pulled the tattered scarf out of his pocket and wrapped it around his neck.

He cared. He cared a lot, dang it. They killed his brother, so he'd return the favor and kill them.

Or not. Didn't matter, didn't matter, didn't matter!

He heard footsteps.

They were gonna have a bad time.

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Mutt sat in the judgement hall, smoking a dog treat. His back was to the wall, literally and metaphorically, as he watched the golden sunlight dance across the floor.

His Lord was dead, and he wasn't quite sure what to do now.

His lord was never a fighter, not really. He talked a high game, but he wouldn't have killed the human. The human had absolutely no reason to behead his lord.  
None.

Mutt gnawed on the dog treat, and looked out the window. The birds were quiet, and the flowers were dead. That was fitting, at least.

He pulled off his hood, revealing the purple bandana his lord had worn everywhere he went. Mutt grabbed a fistful of the fabric and clenched his phalanges. He shouldn't have left his lord alone. He shouldn't have followed orders. Just this once, he should have disobeyed. He should have grabbed his lord and taken him home. Locked him in his room to pout. He'd gladly take the punishment later. He should have been a better brother.

And now what? A human had slaughtered nearly every monster in the underground, and it wasn't his fault at all, but now the human was heading this way, and it was such a drag. He craned his neck and looked behind him. The king was in the throne room, waiting.

Mutt wasn't sure how much faith the king had in him, but honest to Asgore, he chuckled, it didn't matter. His life wasn't important. Nothing was important except for his lord. So, he'd strike down the human as punishment. He stood as he heard footsteps and swallowed the burning dog treat.

If we wasn't strong enough, he'd hold the kid off as long as he could, and Asgore would take their SOUL. Or, not. Either way, by the end of the day, he'd be seeing his brother again.

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Bow was panicking. He still couldn't understand what had happened. He had tried to convince the human to stop… stop killing people! He had believed in them! And he had told them that everyone could be a great person if they just try! He had offered a hug and everything! Sure, there were a lot of scary people in this world, but it wasn't like killing all of his friends was the right answer!

His brother… had been killed, too. The human hadn't approached him offering a hug of acceptance, after all. They had a knife. It happened so fast. Purple had just appeared in front of him in a second.

The human cut off his head, his body dusting before his torso hit the snow. And he had smiled at Bow before his head became dust like the rest of him. Only his jacket remained in a pile of snow and dust.

Bow had screamed and ended the fight, falling to his knees to grasp at his brother's purple jacket. He shook as he tried and failed to understand what had happened. His brother could teleport? Since when? And why? Why would he jump in the way of a knife? Why were they doing this?!

He hadn't even noticed the human approaching him. He hadn't noticed the human raising the knife. He just kept screaming.

Then he was furiously yanked away from the human and the knife.

Bow clutched at his brother's dusty jacket as Alphys tucked him under her arm and sprinted away from Snowdin. She practically flew through Waterfall as she leaped over the water and ran down the path to Hotland. As she ran, she shouted at everyone to take cover, or prepare to fight.

Once they arrived at Undyne's lab, Alphys ran inside and gently sat Bow down.

Alphys had talked with Undyne about evacuating everyone and hiding them in the true lab. Undyne had agreed to her plan, and Alphys had run out the door before Undyne could tell her whatever she wanted to say.

Undyne had sat down next to him and tried to comfort him, but he was in shock. He held his brother's jacket tight and stared off into space. Undyne asked if he wanted to help, but he didn't respond. She had gotten up, grabbed some ramen from her desk, and placed it next to him before patting him on the skull and hurrying downstairs, likely to prepare for the monsters that would be arriving soon.

It was then that he got up and fled to the Judgement Hall. He hadn't meant to come here; he had just run and run and ended up here. He felt like he needed to stay. The Undernet had blown up with Undyne's warnings and messages to the public, urging them to seek refuge at her lab, and he even had seventy or so messages from Undyne asking where he was and begging him to come back, but he ignored the messages. He ignored it all.

He just wanted his brother back. Oh, how he wanted his brother to be there to hug him and tell him that everything was okay and that nothing would come between them and that someday he'd join the royal guard, but Purple was dead and gone and…

Bow calmed himself.

A genocidal human was on their way.

Slowly, carefully, Bow put on Purple's jacket. It was much too big, but that comforted Bow as he zipped up the jacket and put on the hood.

Safe.

He checked his phone.

According to the updates, the human was almost at the end of Hotland.

That meant Alphys was…

Bow summoned his mallet and waited. He may not have meant to come here, but he knew that the Queen was not far from him, and that the human would definitely go after her. And, well, no, he wasn't in the Royal Guard, but he was in training! And since the rest of the Royal Guard was dead, that left him!

… AND, by that logic, he was the Captain of the Royal Guard! It didn't feel as good as he thought it would to be the Captain, but The Fabulous Bow was the last monster between the human and the Queen! He had to stay strong. He had to fight.

He heard footsteps.

Oh, Toriel, he had to fight…

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Merry Giftmas, inspecteurcrayon!

Chapter 2 coming soon, since I couldn't just leave these awesome characters here.

Beta Read by the amazing Copper Cable. Thanks, bro.

UT owned by Toby Fox.


	2. We Need to Talk, Monsters

Merry Giftmas, Crayon – Chapter 2

UnderFell – Red

UnderSwap – Stretch

SwapFell – Mutt

FellSwap – Bow

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The human walked into the room.

Their clothing looked the same as ever; black and red striped shirt, and shorts with boots. They were sporting a golden locket that looked familiar somehow, but Red couldn't remember where he had seen it. Everything about the kid looked the same, except for their eyes.

Ruby red eyes locked onto Red as the human strolled into the Judgement Hall. The human continued to walk until they were just a few inches away from Red before they paused and raised their knife at him.

They didn't speak. That was fine with Red; there wasn't much to say.

Red took a moment to think about how he'd go about this. Killing them quickly would be the safest and easiest method. Killing them slowly would require more work but would be oh, so fun. He checked himself and realized that his HP was incredibly low; half a point, to be exact. This wasn't surprising, as the one person he truly cared about in this world was dust. Low hope for a future meant poor health, however…

He knew what he would do.

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And with that, the human fell down.

Red collapsed against the wall, amazed that the human had been so DETERMINED, and took several deep breaths. He hadn't expected the human to skip his turn, but then again, he wasn't opposed to breaking the rules himself, so it was fine. He checked his brother's scarf and, finding it to be fine, if a little bloody, allowed himself to take a short nap.

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About a day later, Red woke up and wondered where he was and why he was in pain.

Oh, ya, the kid had killed everyone and he had beaten the human in a brawl. Right…

He looked over to where the human was and groaned as he sat up to inspect the area. Nothing looked different from before. That was good. He checked his phone to see the date and time, and was surprised to see that he had reception. He got onto the UnderNet and saw several updates from Doctor Alphys, urging everyone to evacuate to her lab. So there were survivors…

Red didn't know how to feel about that. So he didn't feel at all, and instead crammed those stupid feelings deep, deep down in his gut and left them there for another time. He had a job to do.

Carefully, he stood up and cracked his vertebra, cringed at the sharp noise, and walked over to check the human. Well, they were dead; that much was certain. Their SOUL floated in the air away from their body, somehow still in-tact after a day of being out of its host. That was fine with him. Red carefully cupped the SOUL with his phalanges and put the red heart in his pocket. Looking down at the human, Red sighed and picked the kid up, slinging them over his shoulder and turning around to head to the Throne Room. He wondered if the King would even be there as he tucked the human's knife into his hoodie.

Well, the king was there alright. Sitting on the throne, looking as if he were on his last leg, the King of the underground didn't even blink as Red walked into the room and stood in front of the ruler.

"Here." Red surprised himself by gently placing the human's body into the golden flowers at the king's feet and stepping back. The king didn't react. "Asgore, I did my job for once, aren't you gonna thank me?" Asgore didn't respond; he hadn't registered that anyone was in the room. Red rolled his eyelights and clacked his phalanges together loudly. "Hey, Fluffy Buns! I killed the human!"

Abruptly, Asgore sat up in his thrown and stared wide-eyed at Red as awareness hit him. He looked from Red, to the human, and back at Red as he came back to reality. "You… defeated the human?"

"Yes, your majesty. They were guilty of killing half the underground's population including your entire Royal Guard and the Queen. I did what had to be done." Red pulled the SOUL out of his pocket. "Doctor Alphys managed to save a few citizens from the human's genocide. Take this SOUL and break the barrier. Free everyone."

Red walked through the back door and into the Barrier Room. He stomped onto the ground, hitting the switch and activating the contraption under his feet. Eight jars abruptly shot up from the ground, and Red secured the last SOUL they needed in place. He stepped back and waited for the king. After about thirty seconds of waiting, he was fed up and walked back into the Throne Room to see what the furball's problem was.

Asgore sat in his chair, unmoving. He glanced up at Red. "Sa-" The king paused. "Red, do you think we are any match for the humans?"

"No," Red responded almost immediately. He looked down, scuffing his shoes against the tiles. "I barely beat this one. If we fight them…" He looked back up at the king. "We will die."

"Then what is the point of leaving the Underground?" Asgore rose from his throne and glided over to Red. He placed a paw on Red's shoulders and smiled down at him. "You've done a fine job. I commend you for executing your duty as a sentry and Judge. But for now, let us rest and take care of our dead. We should see who has survived and form a plan before making any decisions, don't you agree?" Red thought for a moment, and then shrugged off the king's hand. "I'm too tired to argue. Call me when you need me."

"Thank you, Red." Asgore wandered back to his throne and slumped into it.

Red turned on his heel and started walking back through the underground. Maybe he'd go home and- oh. No, he couldn't go back to Snowdin looking like this. That mushy king-

When had he gotten mushy? Had the death of his wife made him weak? He used to be ruthless. He used to be scary. Why had he been nice to Red? Ugh, he felt horrible. Why was his skull pounding? He took out his phone to check the time but paused as he caught his reflection on the screen. Oh, that was why the king was so nice for once.

Red looked like crap. His clothes were in near ribbons from the knife slashing at him He was bruised and still sweating like mad. Dried blood, a combination of the human's and his own, nearly covered him. He looked like the undead. As soon as he got to Waterfall, he was jumping into the first clean body of water that he saw.

Satisfied with that plan, Red continued through Hotland until he reached Doctor Alphys' lab. With any luck, they'd all still be hiding in the basement and he could walk through without having to talk to anyone. He stepped forward and frowned as the door didn't open.

"Hey, you stupid door! Open!"

The door, unsurprisingly, did not open for him. Red banged on the door and shouted for someone to open the door, but once again, the door did not open. Red rolled his head around and cursed as he pulled out his phone and private messaged the lizard to open the lab door. Within a few moments, the door snapped open and Red was tugged inside.

Alphys anxiously eyed Red up and down, shaking her head and shuffling her feet. "Red! I'm glad it's you and no-Holy Kissy Cutie, you look like crap."

Red grumbled and wrenched his arm away from the scientist. "Ya, well you don't look like a picnic, either, sweetheart."

Red looked around the lab. A little over a dozen monsters, mostly children, sat strewn about the lab, playing cards or eating dry instant noodles. A little over a dozen monsters had survived. A little over a dozen monsters were left in existence. A human had slaughtered all but a dozen of his race. Good god.

Alphys took a deep breath and tried to stop wringing her hands. "My cameras went out shortly after Undyne… lost. I knew I had to conserve energy since the CORE workers aren't around to distribute power, so I shut off all video screens and unnecessary devices taking power. That's why we didn't just let you in. I kept everyone in the basement until the human passed through and then sealed the doors. The UnderNet has been online, but we've been blind to what has been going on. How did you survive? Did Asgore defeat the human?"

Red wanted to laugh, but he couldn't even chuckle. Instead, he pulled the knife out of his pocket and threw it to the ground.

"No, he didn't. I did."

"Red, I am not in the mood for jokes, this is serious-"

Red's eyelight glowed a bright red. "I killed the human! Someone will hit the switch soon to give the underground power, so turn on your screen and watch the dang footage!" Red glared at a CORE worker who squeaked and rushed out the door to flip the switch.

Worried, Alphys turned on the video screen and accessed the footage from the Judgement Hall. Red came up next to her and angrily found the right place to start the recording and let the video run.

The monsters were shocked as they watched the laziest monster in the underground take down the human who had nearly wiped them out.

Red didn't watch; he couldn't.

Suddenly, something ran into his side and he jolted before seeing Monster Kid pressed into his side. "You're so cool!" Murmurs of agreement washed over the small crowd as they talked about the footage they had just scene, until-

"Then why didn't you kill them in the first place?" Alphys stood up to her full height and, with tears in her eyes, rushed at Red. "Why didn't you save her?!"

Angry, Red side-stepped her with ease. "King's orders; don't interfere with the Royal Guard. You know the penalty for defying the king."

Alphys hiccupped and fell to her knees as she cried. Monster Kid sat beside her and she held him tight. Emotions flashed across her eyes as she weighed what she said, but in the end, the king's orders were absolute. That was ground into every monster child all through school, "I'm sorry, Red. I-Y-You lost your brother, too, I-"

"We shouldn't fight", Red interrupted. "The king ordered everyone to give the dead a proper funeral. All of you, find their favorite belongings and follow through with the burials as the law demands." Everyone nodded and started packing up their stuff and sprinting out the doors to follow the king's orders.

Once everyone had scurried off, Red looked at what was left in the lab. Alphys, Monster Kid, a pile of trash, which was himself, and-

He walked quickly to the desk, as running wasn't something he regularly did, grabbed a cup of noodles someone had left behind, and downed the soup in one gulp. Immediately, his splitting skullache subsided somewhat and his HP returned to… 2/2.

What? Weird. Those noodles must have really been something. But even if they were, he still needed clothing and a literal waterfall to feel clean again. So, Red threw the cup in the trash and headed out the door, ignoring Alphys' words to him, and wandered through Waterfall, looking for some water that wasn't too dusty.

Reaching the room with the blooming flowers and mushrooms, Red walked straight into the fairly-clear water and under the waterfall. After a few minutes under the waterfall, Red felt energized enough to teleport back to their- or rather, his- house.

Red made the extremely quick trip to his house, bypassing the door and falling directly onto his bed. This was a terrible idea, as teleporting directly onto one's bed with dripping-wet clothes was not comfortable, but he just didn't care. He laid on the mattress long enough for his clothes to dry, and figured that if he had skin, he would have gotten quite cold. Red ignored his phone beeping as he curled in on himself and got lost in his thoughts.

All of the more aggressive monsters were dead. This worked in Red's favor, as he wouldn't have to watch his back as carefully anymore. But Grillby was dead, too. That sucked. And the only person in the universe he truly cared about was also dead. Ugh, everything sucked so much!

The feelings he had squashed down began to resurface as he gripped his brother's scarf tighter and tighter. He rolled over. Then, he rolled over again. After that, he rolled over but forgot that he was on the edge of the mattress and flipped onto the floor.

Red grumbled and sat up. He looked down at his shredded clothing and decided to change into something clean. He looked around on the floor and didn't find anything that hadn't been worn multiple times. God, he really was a slob. Slowly, he began crawling around, collecting his clothing and making it float above him. He looked stupid, but he didn't care. He wasn't going to stand up just to bend over; that was too much work.

Once he had collected all the clothing in his room, he stood up and walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, which was also a mess, but he'd get to that later. Red floated the laundry into the side room and inspected the laundry machine. He hadn't done laundry since Edge was a baby bones.

He smiled at the memory and opened the lid on the machine before dumping all the clothes in, colored or not, and pouring in some detergent he found on a shelf. Red paused and was about to put his brother's scarf in, but thought better of it and kept it on. He pressed the start button and let the machine clean his clothes on whatever setting Edge had left it on. Good enough.

Next, he went into the kitchen. Somehow, tomato sauce was everywhere. Red sighed and used his magic to command a mop and bucket to clean. It used more energy than he liked, but he wasn't about to mop the kitchen himself. He got the ceiling clean before the laundry machine signaled that it was done. Unceremoniously dropping the mop and bucket, Red strolled back into the laundry room, took out the clean clothes, and put them into the dryer. He set the machine and returned to mopping the kitchen.

Eventually, although stained, the kitchen was no longer was dirty. Red wringed out the mop and poured the dirty water out the laundry room window. His clothes were now dry and warm, and he carefully floated them right out of the dryer to avoid wrinkling them. Since when did he care about wrinkles?

Red walked up the stairs, carrying the trash can from the kitchen, and entered his room. For once in his life, he decided to not throw his clothes in the bottom of the closet, and used the like-new hangers for their rightful purpose. He attempted to fold his underwear and shorts, but he failed. So, he carefully put them into his drawers. He tossed his socks into the drawer, not caring about whether they were neat or not.

After the clothes were put away, Red piled up all the trash and tossed it into the trash can. He dug around in the bottom dresser drawer and pulled out a fitted sheet, and a blanket. He made his bed and looked at it. Wow. This mattress had never had a sheet on it before.

His room actually looked… not gross. His brother would have been proud.

He sighed. Was there mustard anywhere in the house?

Red wandered back down the stairs and into the newly clean-enough kitchen, where he rummaged around and found a bottle of the sweet, sweet condiment in a cabinet. He tore off the plastic and headed down to the basement, walking through the wall and teleporting to his lab. It was a quiet place where he liked to tinker with the old machine… someone had worked on.

He flopped unceremoniously onto the ground and began to drink his condiment. He glanced over the machine, taking in the dust and mold that now covered the old thing. As his brother got more and more involved in the royal guard, and Red got more and more involved in taking breaks from his sentry duties, he had neglected this old hunk of garbage. At one time, it had been a fun hobby. Recently, he had just been busy with staying alive and napping.

Guess he didn't have to worry about that anymore.

He leaned over and pulled the tarp off the scrap metal. It fell to the ground with a thump, and Red took a closer look at the artifact. Eh, he had nothing else to do. Why not finish the dang thing already?

Grabbing the dry-rotting blueprints off the counter, Red leaned back and glanced over the brittle papers.

He finally had the time to get this thing working.

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Special thanks to my editor, Copper Cable~


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